Saracen

The oldest known source mentioning "Saracens" in association with Muslims is the Greek-language Christian tract Doctrina Jacobi, which was compiled in the Byzantine Empire amidst the Muslim conquest of the Levant. The word became particularly widespread in European societies during the Crusades, when it was used by the Catholic Church and by several European Christian political and military figures.

By the 12th century, "Saracen" had developed various overlapping definitions that generally conflated peoples and cultures in the Abbasid Caliphate, comprising all those in the Near East and beyond. Such an expansion in its meaning had begun centuries earlier, as evidenced in a number of 8th-century Byzantine documents in which Muslims are called Saracens. Before the 16th century, "Muslim" and "Islam" were generally not used in European discourse, with a few isolated exceptions; "Saracen" was gradually rendered obsolete amidst the Age of Discovery, whereafter "Mohammedan" became commonplace, though it also fell out of use by the 20th century and is now considered a misnomer or impertinent by many Muslims because it may suggest that they worship Muhammad rather than God.

Early usage and origins

The Latin term Saraceni is of unknown original meaning. There are claims of it being derived from the Semitic triliteral root šrq "east" and šrkt "tribe, confederation". Another possible Semitic root is srq "to steal, rob, thief", more specifically from the noun sāriq (Arabic: سارق), pl. sāriqīn (سارقين), which means "thief, marauder". In his Levantine Diary, covering the years 1699–1740, the Damascene writer Hamad bin Kanan al-Salhi (ar) (Arabic: محمد بن كَنّان الصالحي) used the term sarkan to mean "travel on a military mission" from the Near East to parts of Southern Europe which were under Ottoman Empire rule, particularly Cyprus and Rhodes.

Ptolemy's 2nd-century work, Geography, describes Sarakēnḗ (Ancient Greek: Σαρακηνή) as a region in the northern Sinai Peninsula. Ptolemy also mentions a people called the Sarakēnoí (Ancient Greek: οἱ Σαρακηνοί) living in the northwestern Arabian Peninsula (near neighbor to the Sinai). Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical history narrates an account wherein Pope Dionysius of Alexandria mentions Saracens in a letter while describing the persecution of Christians by the Roman Emperor Decius: "Many were, in the Arabian mountain, enslaved by the barbarous 'sarkenoi'." The Augustan History also refers to an attack by Saraceni on Pescennius Niger's army in Egypt in 193, but provides little information as to identifying them.

Both Hippolytus of Rome and Uranius mention three distinct peoples in Arabia during the first half of the third century: the Taeni, the Saraceni, and the Arabes. The Taeni, later identified with the Arab people called Tayy, were located around Khaybar (an oasis north of Medina) and also in an area stretching up to the Euphrates. The Saraceni were placed north of them. These Saracens, located in the northern Hejaz, were described as people with a certain military ability who were opponents of the Roman Empire and who were classified by the Romans as barbarians.

The Saracens are described as forming the equites from Phoenicia and Thamud. In one document, the defeated enemies of Diocletian's campaign in the Syrian Desert are described as Saracens. Other 4th-century military reports make no mention of Arabs, but refer to Saracen groups ranging as far east as Mesopotamia who were involved in battles on both the Sasanian and Roman sides. The Saracens were named in the Roman administrative document Notitia Dignitatum, dating from the time of Theodosius I in the 4th century, as comprising distinctive units in the Roman army. They were distinguished in the document from Arabs.

The fifth century historian Sozomen gives an etymology for the word "Saracen", saying that it comes from the Ishmaelites, a group of Arabs who had practices which they had gained from the Jews, such as circumcision and a taboo around pork, as being supposedly descended from Hagar was embarrassing, as she was a slave, they assumed the name "Saracen" after Sarah, the wife of Abraham.